Speak out!

Submit your comment:

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Address, line 1

City

State

ZIP Code

Message to the U.S. Trade Representative

USTR-2024-0009-0001

Request for Comments: ...

Past U.S. trade policies in Latin America have caused significant harm to working people, public health, the environment, Indigenous peoples, and national sovereignty. Their legacy has also tarnished the image of the U.S. as a neighbor and economic partner. It is very important to me that we right these wrongs.

It is encouraging to hear that the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP) will not be a traditional free trade agreement. This initiative should center labor rights, climate justice, and both Indigenous and national sovereignty. It should work to undo the harms of our past neoliberal model and lessen corporate influence over countries’ regulatory and financial policies.

Specifically, the U.S. should work with APEP countries to:

Dismantle Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), which empowers corporations to challenge public interest laws and win taxpayer money in compensation. This system puts Latin American governments in precarious situations, gives absurd privileges to multinational corporations, and tramples critical rights and protections for people and the planet.

Raise labor standards and eliminate legal loopholes that allow big corporations to take advantage of and abuse workers. After renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (USMCA), Mexican workers saw real improvements in their fight to win independent unions. On the contrary, despite continued violence against labor unionists in Guatemala or the failure to enforce labor laws in Colombia as required under its free trade agreement with us, no enforcement actions have been taken. This must change.

Include strong, binding climate obligations and enforcement mechanisms. The U.S. should also take proactive measures to prevent future trade attacks on clean energy programs and other climate initiatives, such as those in the Inflation Reduction Act, by advancing the idea of a Climate Peace Clause under which parties agree not to use existing trade or investment agreements to attack each other’s climate policies.

Support a just transition to a clean energy economy. If APEP becomes a venue for discussion of supply chains for Critical Minerals, such as those used in electric vehicles, priority should be given to meeting the climate, job creation, human rights, and sustainable development goals of both the United States and its trading partners.

Exclude Big Tech’s “digital trade” provisions that undermine consumer privacy, data security, and artificial intelligence accountability.

Support affordable access to medicines, including by reaffirming the right for countries to use compulsory licensing for vaccines, medicines, diagnostic tools and other medical technologies needed to address existing and future public health crises. This would include the removal of so-called “TRIPS-plus” terms included in existing trade agreements in the region.

Any conversation about economic integration in Latin America must address the ongoing harm caused by our existing corporate-friendly trade deals in the region.

General